Last two Northern White Rhinos (Day 6)

Ol Pejeta Conservancy ($90 USD card additional)

-Journey Genius Safaris (Tour company)

- $ 164 a peice plus $90 for park entry

+254733977725 Rating (tour and driver) -5/5

-9:30 Ol Pejeta conservacy

-Chimpanzee sanctuary

- Last two northern white rhinos

-Game tour & white rhinos

-Equator marker Nanyuki Town

March 19th, 2018 the last male northern white rhino passed away in Kenya at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy at the age of 45. Around the time this happened, we had already started coming up with ideas of where to visit when going to Africa. This was definitely a deciding factor my sister and I talked about for wanting to go to Kenya. We learned about how the last two northern white rhinos were on the Oj Pejeta Conservancy both are females and are mother and daughter. Neither of them are able to have kids anymore due to medical reasons. Both these two girls were taken from a zoo where they lived their entire lives before going to the conservancy. Now they are guarded 24/7 from the country's anti-poaching police force, Najin and Fatu get to graze all day in a fenced-in 140- square mile private area. They are accompanied by a southern white rhino, who is in there to teach the other two how to live as rhinos. Since Najin and Fatu never got to live their lives in the wild having a friend in there with them, helping show them how to graze and enjoy their enclosure the best they can!

More information on the rhinos here with the New York Times Magazine.

All three of them can be seen in this picture Najin is the one with her back to us in the picture, while the other one standing is the southern white rhino. Fatu is Najin's daughter and she is laying down at the edge of this picture.

From Nairobi the drive to the Oj Pejeta Conservancy is around 3.5 to 4 hours. We got picked up really early so for part of the ride we were able to take a nap. While driving there are police checkpoints that check every car as they drive by. We were never told exactly what they searched for but we assumed it was weapons and we were told at some of the points they are just checking you have a seat belt on. You are not allowed to take any pictures of the police in Kenya, along the way you can see Mt Kenya and when my mom went to take a picture a police officer was below where she aimed her shot. He came over and asked what she was taking pictures of, so she turned her camera and said the mountain behind you.

After entering into the Ol Pejeta Conservancy and paying our $90 apiece to get in, we first went to the equator marker. The equator splits right through Kenya, there are multiple areas that you can see markers along the way but this one was the best we saw. We of course had to get pictures with RJ (Rex Jr) as well here!

In 1993 the Ol Pejeta Conservancy opened its doors to a rescue center in Burundi that had closed due to a civil war outbreak. They welcomed in chimpanzees from the center and established the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary. An agreement between the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, the Kenya Wildlife Service, and the Jane Goodall Institute to provide lifelong refugee to orphaned and abused chimpanzees from West and Central Africa. Helping orphaned and abused chimpanzees from West and Central Africa. 36 chimpanzees are currently at the sanctuary. Many of them have been confiscated from cramped and unnatural living conditions, and many arrive with horrific injuries from abuse by human hands.

When first walking in you get to meet the keeper that will be showing you the sanctuary. Along the fence there is a rope about 5 feet back we got to be up to that rope but not any closer our whole visit. We got to walk around two different enclosures that they have the chimps in. All the chimpanzees here have their own sad back story one was locked in a cage he could hardly stand in for years before being rescued, he now has sever neurological issues and will rock him self back and forth while sucking on his thumb. There are a few babies that were accidentally born at the sanctuary but they do try to prevent that from happening.

We went around the conservancy driving around looking for different animals. We saw a group of elephants that were all injured in some way, two with broken tusks and one that had a lame leg from what our guide said they think was a car running into it.

As we went around some more we were very fortune it to see a lot of groups of rhinos. Black rhinos tend to hide in the tree line and under brush where they spend their time eating the leaves and twigs When we were spotting out animals we actually found one out in the open sun bathing. Our guide told us how lucky we were black rhinos are hard enough to see but to see one in the open is really rare! When looking at a white and a black rhino there isn't much of a difference, except for their mouths. White rhinos have more flat or squared mouths perfect for scooping up grass and hay (they got their names from the west African word "weit" meaning wide referring to their mouths but was translated to white over the years.) While the black rhinos have more of a triangle shaped mouth to help them eat their diet of leaves and sticks.

Driving around we saw a lot of zebras, there are two different types in Kenya the Grevys and the common plains Zebra. Northern Kenya is mostly the only place to find the Grevys zebras, there are only around 2,500 left in the world compared to decades ago when there were 15,000. They have a longer mane, larger ears, larger bodies with white bellies, and thinner stripes then the common zebra. Most of Kenya has the common plains zebra but the Ol Pejeta Conservancy is close enough to the park where the Grevys zebra is that they are starting to cross breed! In the park they are trying to prevent this, for they are more aggressive then the full breeds.

In the middle the 3rd one in is an example of this cross breeding.

Next we headed over to where the Northern white rhinos are kept. As soon as we got there we were greeted with a tour guide that is there to show and teach you more about the animals. We got to go straight back and meet their ambassador black rhino, Baraka who is kept on the reserve and helps teach more about the species. He is here due to the fact that he is blind in both eyes, he lost one in a fight and the other due to cataracts. Because of this he could not survive in the wild so they moved him into a 100-acre enclosure where he surprised everyone as it took only three weeks for him to fully adjust to his new home. Our guide called to him and went and brought him over to the edge of the enclosure, when he got there we were aloud to pet him while he stayed there getting feed!

Grave yard for the Northern white rhinos, before they are buried all of their horns are removed and taken to the Nairobi National park to be burned so that no one will try to dig up the graves for the ivory.

On the other side of the information center and where Baraka's pasture is. The white rhinos have their 140 square mile enclosure. We got lucky and they were very close to the fence where we can see them with out having to pay to get closer. It is an extra $30usd to be able to go into the enclosure and see them.